Heppenheim, Germany.., 27 March, 2004 -- The SETI League, Inc., grassroots leaders in the privatized Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, has awarded its highest technical honor to one of Europe's foremost radio astronomers. Stelio Montebugnoli, who heads the SETI Italia project from the Medecina radio telescopes in Italy, was honored today at EuroSETI04, The SETI League's first European SETI Science and Technology Workshop, with the annual Giordano Bruno Memorial Award, for significant contributions to SETI science.

Ing. Montebugnoli is an electronics engineer for INAF (Istituto Nazionale di AstroFisica). His professional duties include the operation of the Northern Cross Radio Telescope at the Institute for Radio Astronomy, National Council of Research, near Bologna, Italy. For several years, he has conducted a parasitic SETI program from a 32-meter parabolic reflector which serves as part of the European Very Long Baseline Interferometer. Using six Project SERENDIP processor boards obtained from the University of California, Berkeley, his SETI Italia project monitors 24 million channels at a resolution of 0.6 Hz, making it one of the world's most sensitive tools in the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence.

The Bruno is awarded annually for significant technical contributions to the art and science of SETI. It is dedicated to the memory of Giordano Bruno, the Italian monk burned at the stake in 1600 for postulating the multiplicity of inhabited worlds. This award was first suggested by sociologist Donald Tarter, at a SETI dinner held at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meetings in Atlanta on Feb. 17, 1995 (coincidentally the 395th anniversary of Bruno's death). Past recipients include physicist Dr. D. Kent Cullers, WA6TWX; software volunteer Daniel Boyd Fox, KF9ET; English amateur radio astronomers Trevor Unsworth, G0ECP, and Ken Chattenton, G4KIR; Australian coordinator Noel Cedric Welstead, VK4AYW; photonics engineer Dr. Stuart Kingsley; Peter Wright, DJ0BI, founder and president of the European Radio Astronomy Club; lunar farside radio astronomy proponent Dr. Claudio Maccone; and noted physicist, astronomer and SETI pioneer Prof. Philip Morrison, ex-W8FIS, jointly with his late wife, educator Phylis Morrison.

SETI scientists use a variety of scientific approaches to determine whether humankind is alone in the universe. Since Congress terminated NASA's SETI funding in 1993, The SETI League and other scientific groups have been attempting to privatize the research. Experimenters interested in participating in the search for intelligent alien life, or citizens wishing to help support it, should email to join_at_setileague_dot_org, check the SETI League Web site at http://www.setileague.org/, send a fax to +1 (201) 641-1771, or contact The SETI League, Inc. membership hotline at +1 (800) TAU-SETI. Be sure to provide us with a postal address to which we will mail further information. The SETI League, Inc. is a membership-supported, non-profit [501(c)(3)], educational and scientific corporation dedicated to the systematic Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence.